The present invention relates to the field of composite application development and, more particularly, to an enhanced development tool for utilizing a JAVASCRIPT Object Notation (JSON) bridge for non-JAVA-based component communication within JAVA-based composite applications.
Composite applications are a flexible means for providing users with a collective presentation of data obtained from a variety of existing sources. A composite application consists of multiple decoupled components that provide data and/or functionality, such as Web services and enterprise applications. Interaction among components is defined by wires that connect a data property of one component to an action of another component. For example, changing the date in a calendar component causes a datebook component to display stored appointments for that date.
The components comprising a composite application can be written in various programming languages. However, current JAVA-based development tools used to create composite applications do not easily facilitate the use of components that are written in non-JAVA-based programming languages. For example, within the JAVA-based LOTUS NOTES development environment, sending property data from a JAVA-based component to a C-based component requires the definition a complex, user-provided marshalling procedure.
In order to take advantage of non-JAVA-based components, developers are required to understand the marshalling process, the JAVA programming language, and the composite application architecture. These additional burdens on the developer hinder the use of non-JAVA-based components. Thus, a developer is required to create a JAVA-based counterpart to the non-JAVA-based component, find a JAVA-based component that provides comparable functionality, or exclude the functionality from the composite application, all of which increase project time and cost.
Attempts to remedy this situation have produced the concept of JAVASCRIPT Object Notation (JSON) bridges, which translate a source data type into JSON. JSON is an ideal communication medium between disparate components due to its programming neutral nature. However, current JAVA-based development tools for composite applications do not provide a user-friendly means to utilize a JSON bridge from within their graphical interface.